Fighting over power grid

A drone video of a toppling transmission tower in Alabang during a raging fire went viral on social media in April. It dramatized the peril posed by illegal dwellers beneath high-voltage lines. Encroachment on towers’ cemented bases is a big headache for giant National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP). Not only are squatters at risk of electrocution, they also disrupt power supply. Tower 34’s collapse onto the adjacent tollway, due to stolen bolts, caused an outage in half the city. It is impossible to guard the thousands of kilometers of transmission wires across the land. In some locales officials even abet the squatting. There also are lawsuits by owners unpaid for land on which the electric structures were put up decades ago. The government’s Transmission Company (TransCo) had left behind that problem when the NGCP took over privatized operation in 2009.

Fiber optics. Running alongside the transmission grid is a fiber optic system that the NGCP inherited with the concession. Serving as data and communications backbone, the cables interconnect the control center and substations. Thus is ensured stable, secure and efficient transmission of electricity from generators down to distributors.

The fiber optic belatedly has caught the eye of TransCo. Upon recent appointment as TransCo president Melvin Matibag suddenly wanted it for the government’s National Broadband Network. Since the fibers originally were intended for transmission use, NGCP initially was apprehensive. Public use could compromise transmission and communication security. Nonetheless NGCP opened direct talks with the Dept. of Information and Communication Technology about NBN use.

The electricity grid being vital to national security, NGCP must shield its computer and communications system. While the government and public need fast, reliable internet which NGCP’s backbone can help give, it must not be at the expense of power security. The fiber network that controls the grid presently is closed to the public. Only NGCP engineers and authorized officials may access it. Before public use, sufficient safeguards must be put in place against hacking and sabotage that could paralyze the grid and black out the country.

NGCP is proceeding with caution, refusing to be stampeded by Matibag into public use of the fiber optics. The operation of the power grid has been privatized for eight years, from the time of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. During that term Matibag’s superior, Energy Sec. Al Cusi, had held several posts. The concession terms bar meddling with the operations of a company that paid government through PSALM for the 25 years. Strict legal protocols are specified in the concession agreement to settle disputes.

Landlord abuse. TransCo’s title and ownership of the grid is akin to a landlord who leases out a building. While the landlord owns the physical facilities (the structure and everything in it), he cannot compel a tenant to use the building’s telephone wires the way he wants. It’s the lessee’s right to use what he paid for, so long as it’s not for illegal purposes. The same goes with the power grid’s fiber optic network.

The recent tit-for-tat between TransCo and NGCP does not help push the country’s energy agenda forward. Any perception of bickering between the government and private investors deters confidence. In the fiber optics case, the government looks like it wants to dip its fingers in work already in private hands.

Matibag raises other issues like high transmission fees and repayments to the government. But it’s the Energy Regulatory Commission that should handle rates, and the PSALM that should cry about remittances if at all. The law empowers the ERC to set rates, and it was the PSALM that privatized the power grid in 2009. TransCo has no role in both.

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Praiseworthy is San Miguel Corp.’s aid of P2 million to the family of each soldier killed in action in the Marawi City fighting. The grants are to help the relatives start up businesses. Thirty-six soldiers have fallen as of last weekend. “All of us Filipinos are in awe of the courage and heroism of our soldiers,” SMC president Ramon S. Ang says. “The best way we can honor our fallen soldiers is to try and help their loved ones have a chance at a better future.”

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